


Half-Answers In the Night

by hufflepirate



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Episode Related, Episode: c01e042 Dangerous Dealings, Extended Scene, F/M, Fluff, Sharing a Bed, snoring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 09:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17363813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflepirate/pseuds/hufflepirate
Summary: Just because she knows they don't want to be alone, it doesn't mean Keyleth knows how to be together.AKA: An extension to that scene in episode 42 where Vax goes to Kiki's room.(But mostly just cuddles, tbh.)





	Half-Answers In the Night

"I haven't been wanting to be alone most nights." Even as Keyleth said it, she wasn't sure what she meant by it, but as Vax stepped into her room, he wasn't quite looking at her, so at least whatever she meant or didn't mean, he wasn't reading it off her face.

She closed the door behind him, keeping her face turned away from him long enough to breathe, and then she turned.

He had paused, studying her room, but as she turned he started moving again, shoving some pieces of furniture back and away against the wall, now that her bed was gone. They'd moved things around haphazardly to make space to maneuver, the beds harder to move for her and the others than they were for Grog, but there hadn't been time to let Grog do it all. Not with how many refugees they had downstairs in the temple. Not with so many of them injured and weak and afraid.

Vax grunted slightly, pushing the nightstand across the stone floor, and she felt a half smile creep onto her face. He wasn't the strongest. But perhaps sometimes he was. He was something, anyway, and the longer she thought about what he'd told her by the Sun Tree, the less certain she was about what.

He curled up in the corner, making the most of the new space and lying down after a single, calculating glance across the room at her bedroll, which was lying out in the middle of the floor.

He must have decided it was distance enough, but as she moved back to her bedroll to sit down, she felt like there were miles between them.

She shouldn't complain. He'd asked not to be alone, and they weren't. She'd never answered by the tree, and she still wasn't sure she knew how.

She stood up anyway, awkwardly picking up one of her extra blankets from where it had fallen in a heap in another corner.

"Here," she said, walking over to him and draping it over him, "You shouldn't - you don't have to be _cold._ "

He reached up, fast as anything, just like always, and grabbed her wrist, looking up intently into her eyes. "Thank you."

Something tugged, hard, at her heart, pulling at her chest, but this wasn't - there was something in his eyes, but whatever the pull was he wasn't doing it. It wasn't him. It was her.

He held on for a moment longer, a moment too long, and they both knew it, and she was glad, and she wasn't sure if he knew that part or not.

She pulled away, sighing. "No, just. Wait. Wait there."

Rolling up her bedroll and gathering up her blankets would have been awkward enough, just now, even without his eyes still on her, without the feeling of his gaze resting on her back, but she kept breathing and ignored it, and then everything was lumped up together in her arms and she walked back toward him.

"Here," she said, "Scoot over."

"Kiki-"

"Scoot over." She wasn't used to giving orders, not like this, but for a moment she channeled Vex, and then felt weird about it. Vax scooted over, making room for her and then sitting up to help her arrange everything into a makeshift bed for the two of them.

He didn't quite meet her eyes as he laid back down, right at the edge of everything, and the tugging in her chest was back again, and she slid all the way up next to him, as close as she could get, sliding a hand across his side, under his arm.

He pulled her in, and she tucked her head under his chin, closing her eyes to breathe in the familiar scent of him. She wasn't used to being held, not really, not like this, and she knew Vax was still right up against the outer edge of the pile of blankets, and she tried to relax, but couldn't quite.

"Is this alright?" she whispered, softly.

Vax kissed the side of her head. "This is perfect."

"We should scoot over toward the middle, though," she said, "So you don't end up outside the blankets. Shouldn't we?"

Vax chuckled, a familiar warm sound accompanied by an unfamiliar new vibration as she felt it in his chest.

Scooting over was awkward, as neither of them quite moved far enough away from the other to make it efficient, and she caught his hair under her hand by accident once, just for a moment, and had to apologize, but before she tucked her head back into his chest, she caught a smile on his face, and that was - something. Was enough. Probably.

*****

Keyleth knew Vax snored sometimes. She'd always known it, and she'd heard Vex give him grief over it enough times, and it wasn't a _loud_ snore, anyway. It still woke her, louder in this position than she'd ever heard it before, and she reached up a hand awkwardly to rest on the side of his face, casting lesser restoration into him.

His breathing quieted, still deep and slow and sleeping, but without the catch of the snore. His arms were heavy around her, sleep seemingly magnifying the weight, like it always did, but as she pushed backward to get a better look at his sleeping face, moving wasn't as hard as she'd thought it might be.

He'd said things she'd never answered. He'd done things she'd never answered. He'd asked a question tonight that she'd only half-answered, at best, and he deserved better. He deserved better. But she didn't have better. And she didn't know when she would.

She pressed a kiss to his clavicle, just because it was nearby, and cuddled back up against him, listening to his heartbeat. At least she could answer the kiss on the head, tonight. And if he wasn't awake to know it, it just meant she didn't have to decide what the answer _said_.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still catching up on Campaign 1 and I'm only at episode 45, so no spoilers, please! I mean, I've had some things spoiled, but not EVERYTHING, so just.... help me out if you would, if you're planning to comment. <3


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